WashU RD chances

Colleges and Universities A-Z Washington University in St. Louis
1

I’m super excited to be applying to WashU this January!! Only reason I didn’t ED was because I haven’t visited. Anyways, could you guys chance me? I want to apply to the humanities scholarship too, but I don’t know where I stand in terms of stats. Thanks!

Here are my stats:

Objective:

-I attend a small public charter school (highest performing high school in LA based off of SBAC results)
-UW GPA: 4.0
-W GPA: 4.79 (rank is 1/97)
-ACT: 34 superscore (36E 33M 31R 34S 30W)
-I take the hardest offered course load

AP tests: Lang (4)
APES (4)

*My school doesn’t offer APs, but we have to test into all of our honors classes

High School Schedule:

9th grade:
-Honors English 9
-Chemistry
-Honors Algebra II
-PE
-Art I
-Spanish I

10th grade:
-Honors Trig/Precalc
-Honors World History
-Honors World Literature
-Physics
-Spanish II
-Honors Biology

11th grade:
-Honors Environmental Science
-Honors Calc AB
-Honors American Literature
-Honors US History
-Spanish III
-Computer Science

12th grade:
-Honors Calc BC
-Honors Stats
-Honors Gov Econ
-Honors British Literature
-Honors Spanish 4
-Honors Enviro TA

Subjective:

-ECs:

-FREERUNNING (like parkour or American Ninja Warrior)
-I practice around 15-20hrs a week and was recently hired by my academy to become a coach. I rank #1 between the three Freerunning Academies in LA and SD (they share 1 ranking system)
-offered a spot on the Olympic Freerunning Committee (will hopefully be a sport in 2024 olympics)

-PIANO

  • I play around 3-4 hours a week, take lessons, and have participated in the national piano guild
  • I am in my school’s jazz band

-IMPROV/ACTING
-I’ve been participating for 5 years; I’ve been on the team for 3 years and am team captain
-I’ve also been in some commercials and short films

-STUDENT GOVERNMENT/STUDENT BODY PRESIDENT
-elected high school body president as a freshman, current senior class president
-11th grade representative

  • been an active member for all years of HS
    -fund raise for school apparel and school goods

-NHS (member)

-KEY CLUB (member)

-COMMUNITY SERVICE

  • through NHS and KC, I have done about 350 hrs of CS ( includes volunteering to teach kids freerunning and active beach cleanup)
  • have done more independently

-PHOTOGRAPHY CLUB ~5hrs/wk (President)
-Hold an exhibition at the end of the school year

-ASTRONOMY CLUB (VP)
-also took college astronomy class and got an A

-WRITING/YEARBOOK
-fouonder of writing club in 10th grade, president
-writing a novella over summer and will be self published
-internship with my city’s newspaper company
-senior yearbook editor

2

Have you done anything impressive in the humanities field (for the scholarship)? Awards? You’ll probably also want to retake the ACT to bring up your reading score, even if it won’t affect your super score; reading is more important for the humanities than math or science.

3

@dartagnaneb unfortunately, for me, I always run out of time on the reading section. If I read to slow I don’t finish, but if I read too fast I miss important information. Plus, I become anxious in the testing environment and my mind drifts during the reading section. Thus, I’m not sure if it would be worth a retest. I hear that the English and math sections are much better indicators of knowledge than the reading or science sections, so I hope they’d take those sections more heavily into account.

I haven’t done anything really impressive in the humanities field, to be honest. I just like writing a lot and do it all the time. Besides the internship, I haven’t really done much. I’m debating whether it’s even worth it to apply for the scholarship. I may just apply to CAS. What do you think?

4

@ap012199 have you considered practicing specifically for the reading section? Obviously the time crunch is tough for everyone, but even a little bit of practice can go a long way in my view. Right now you’re at the minimum total point value for that 34 SS, and they know that. A 31 on reading is only the 91st percentile as while, while even a 1 point increase (we’re talking 1 or 2 more correct questions here) would mean a 3 point boost in percentile (94th). In my opinion, could be worth a retest.

I don’t see a reason not to apply for the scholarship. It’s just a few short essays, and the scholarship and admissions aren’t connected. I think it’s just important to emphasize any ability and interest in the field. I know a big part of the scholarship application is research intentions so you might have to figure that out.

5

@dartagnaneb I did get a 32 on the reading section on one of the tests, but the composite was so low that I decided not to send it. Plus, I don’t really want to spend more money on a test, and if I get rejected, my guess is that it will be for something other than my ACT score which puts me in the 75th percentile for applicants. I also truly think that colleges look mostly at math and English sub scores as the other two sections don’t say much about an applicant (from what I’ve heard and read). All of this also depends on whether I get into my ED school.

6

@ap012199 What’s your ED school?

7

@ap012199 Your ACT 34 composite is more than good enough and the 31 in one subscore will not make or break your application. You look like a very competitive applicant but with a sub 20% acceptance rate, there are no guarantees. That said, admissions are unpredictable and Wash U does try to maximize its yield. Hence the importance of “demonstrated interest.” The ultimate form of demonstrated interest is ED application. Barring that, applying for one of the scholarships will show that you are serious and aren’t just using the school as a safety. You could also request an alumni interview, if you are unable to visit the school.

You should pick the scholarship that best fits your academic interest. Some of the named scholarships are specific to certain majors.

Congratulations on your academic achievements thus far! I’m sure you will have many choices in the spring.

8

@mamaedefamilia I was only saying that the 31 subscore is not very competitive for the humanities scholarship.

9

@dartagnaneb Brown University

10

@ap012199 Good luck!

11

@dartagnaneb thanks!